This personal collection of serendipitously encountered spiritual and religious wonders, curiosities, and tethers to communities of like-minded people began in the service of an open essay --"Science and the Spirit." -- But has subsequently taken on a life of its own.

Sites identified here range from illuminating and intrinsically fascinating through genuinely weird and amusing. Taken together they help circumnavigate the human concern for transcendence. Be challenged and enlightened, inspired and enthused . . .

THE GREAT STORY "is a way of telling the history of everyone and everything that honors and embraces all religious traditions and creation stories. It is the sacred narrative of an evolving Universe of emergent complexity and breathtaking creativity and cooperation — a story that offers each of us the opportunity to find meaning and purpose in our lives and our time in history. . . . Science writer Connie Barlow points out . . . that The Great Story is distinguished from most other creation stories in four ways:

it isthe story of the changing story. Whenever a new discovery is made in the sciences, this creation story changes. Change is to be welcomed; not feared.

it is a creation story that is not yet over. Evolutionary change at all levels (cosmos, planetary, life, culture) will continue into the future, and we humans bear a responsibility for how the story will continue on Earth.

it is a new creation story shaped with a planetary perspective. Because the scientific enterprise is now global in scope, this story necessarily has its origins and ongoing influences centered at the scale of the whole Earth — influenced by peoples of all ethnicities, all religious traditions, and hailing from all bioregions. (This is the unity character.)

it isradically open to multiple interpretations. Because the empirical and theoretical sciences search entirely for material explanations of the world, whenever one ventures into the realm of meaning or into the realm of spirit, the interpretations necessarily go beyond the science. And yet, make meaning we must! Humans are intrinsically meaning-makers, whether we construe that meaning to be innate in the cosmos or created by the human mind. (This is the diversity character.)

it isthe marriage of science and religion. Because the creation stories of classical religions and primary peoples were birthed well prior to the discoveries of an evolutionary universe, these stories can at best be reconciled with scientific awareness. In contrast, The Great Story grounds its celebratory creation story on the contributions of the scientific endeavor, and the interpretations are nuanced to be empowering for today's concerns.

in 2002 Rev. Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow have taken to the road to tell the Great Story. Their "website was launched . . . initially [to help them schedule] events for their life on the road, teaching in schools and colleges the wonders of cosmic and life evolution, and preaching in churches ways of regarding evolution such that diverse faiths and worldviews are enriched."

VIRTUAL RELIGION INDEX is a large collection of links that is "designed to advance research in matters of religion. As a global forum that may be accessed instantaneously anywhere, the internet promises to surpass the impact of the printing press on the study of religion."

Science & Spirit is a magazine that "explores how science and religion can work together to address the vital issues of our time. Life's complexities . . . . [can be viewed] through the lenses of both science and religion [to offer] insight neither discipline provides alone. more

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REVIEW of Tenzin Gyatso's The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality
by Esther Sternberg
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"As one would expect from Buddhist practice, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, believes that there is a place for compassion in all aspects of life, even within the hallowed halls of science. In his most recent book, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality, he uses logic and specific examples to build a case for adding compassion, a broader view, and some degree of subjectivity into what many see as the otherwise sterile, reductionist practice of modern science.
[complete review from Science 2006]

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SCIENCE IN THE NEWS from Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
Today's Headlines - November 4, 2005

Vatican: Faithful Should Listen to Sciencefrom Associated Press

VATICAN CITY - A Vatican cardinal said Thursday the faithful should listen to what secular modern science has to offer, warning that religion risks turning into "fundamentalism" if it ignores scientific reason.

Cardinal Paul Poupard, who heads the Pontifical Council for Culture, made the comments at a news conference on a Vatican project to help end the "mutual prejudice" between religion and science that has long bedeviled the Roman Catholic Church and is part of the evolution debate in the United States.

The Vatican project was inspired by Pope John Paul II's 1992 declaration that the church's 17th-century denunciation of Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension." Galileo was condemned for supporting Nicolaus Copernicus' discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun; church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe. http://tinyurl.com/davde

The STOQ Project II (Science, Theology and the Ontological Quest):

Is founded on the collaboration of three Pontifical Roman Universities: Lateran, Gregorian and Regina Apostolorum. From this year other three Pontifical Universities - the St.Thomas, the Salesian and the Holy Cross - started to collaborate at the STOQ Project II.

Is coordinated by the Pontifical Council for Culture with the support of the John Templeton Foundation.

Isaimed at developing the dialogue between Science, Philosophy, and Theology, in order to confront the Christian vision of world, man and society with the many theoretical, ethical and cultural challenges raised by the developments of science.

Is to be immersed over three years (from 2003 to 2006), into different Study and Research Programs in the Universities involved in the Project. Students can follow courses of The STOQ Project in all the Universities involved. These courses will be recognized within each University and can be inserted into the student curricula.

Is directed at students, scientists, philosophers, theologians and all those interested in deepening the rational basis of their faith, or exploring the possibility of being believers at the beginning of the Third Millennium

"The need to grope our collective way through such quandaries may force theologians, church leaders, biologists, and philosophers to engage one another. Perhaps this debate will get hopelessly hung up in doctrine, for instance on the question of whether life begins when sperm meets egg. But there is at least an equal chance that the pressure of solving biotech questions will force science and theology to find the reasonable points of either field. Unlike cosmology, which poses fascinating questions whose answers have no effect on daily life, biotech will affect almost everyone in an immediate way. A science-and-religion reconciliation on this subject may be needed to write research rules, physician ethics, and, ultimately, law."

from "the New Convergence" by Gregg Easterbrook in WIRED magazine December, 2002 (complete essay)illustrations by Alex Ostroy

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."It is no secret that science and religion, once allied in homage to divinely crafted harmonies, have long been growing apart. As the scientific worldview has become more authoritative and self-sufficient, it has loosed a cascade of appalling fears: that the human soul, insofar as it can be said to exist, may be a mortal and broadly comprehensible product of material forces; that the immanent, caring God of the Western monotheisms may never have been more than a fiction devised by members of a species that self-indulgently denies its continuity with the rest of nature; and that our universe may lack any discernible purpose, moral character, or special relation to ourselves. But as those intimations have spread, the retrenchment known as creationism has also gained in strength and has widened its appeal, acquiring recruits and sympathizers among intellectual sophisticates, hard-headed pragmatists, and even some scientists. And so formidable a political influence is this wave of resistance that some Darwinian thinkers who stand quite apart from it nevertheless feel obliged to placate it with tactful sophistries, lest the cause of evolutionism itself be swept away."

Religion And The Brain (May 7, 2000) Section: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; 3888 words"In the new field of ‘neurotheology,’ scientists seek the biological basis of spirituality. . . Is God all in our heads? "By Sharon Begley with Anne Underwood

AND a response by Kenneth L. Woodward: "Faith Is More Than A Feeling""The problem with neurotheology is that it confuses spiritual experiences—which few believers actually have—with religion"

a recent (Jan 2000) sermon by a colleague in Scientific Pantheism: "The view --"syncretistic universalism" (SU) -- [that] was essentially advocated over 150 years ago by Ralph Waldo Emerson, . . . it is also advocated by (some) intellectuals in the Buddhist and Hindu traditions..." UNIVERSAL RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY by Dr. Jan Garrett

Its mission is to "promote education, research, and outreach on religion and science issues in the Delaware Valley and beyond through lectures, publications, courses, conferences, dialogues, and electronic media. The four main areas of interest are:

Constructive dialogue between religious traditions and science including interested parties from all academic disciplines

Universal Pantheism:("Faith in wilderness, or in nature as a creative force... is a philosophy, a faith; it is even, if you like, a religion. It puts your ultimate trust not in human intelligence, but in whatever it is that created human intelligence." --Joseph Wood Krutch)

"Can rational inquiry and spiritual conviction be reconciled? Although some scientists contend that the two cannot coexist, others believe they have linked destinies" Science and God: A Warming Trend summary of article in Science (15 Aug. 1997) by Greg Easterbrook

Healing Faith, Healing Religion: Is religion a behavioral pattern that can be viewed much like other biological traits as contributing more or less to fitness in the individuals and populations that manifest it?

Faith and Science:Ole Jørgen Anfindsen is a computer scientist, member of the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA), and collector of an awesome accumulation of web connections (albeit heavy on creationism) including many relating to science and spirituality. LINK LOST

Center for the Renewal for Science and Culture is an anti-materialistic think-tank working to develop a credible intellectual base by reviewing "new developments in biology, physics, and artificial intelligence [that raise] serious doubts bout scientific materialism and re-open the case for the supernatural.

Feynman writes of religious students who find their faith challenged in the university's laboratories and Polkinghorne writes of science and theology as two dimensions of the same intellectual adventure Their books are reviewed by Freeman Dyson in the 28 May 1998 New York Review: IS GOD IN THE LAB?LINK LOST

GODS of SCIENCE? George Johnson points out that "A lot of scientists maintain a kind of theistic belief, in which God is a great mathematician or a great geometer, the forger of the universal laws. But the 40 percent in the survey said they believed in a God who "actively communicates with humankind and to whom one may pray 'in expectation of receiving an answer.'" The percentage of believers was unchanged from 1916, when the survey was first conducted." He appealed for opinions and received over 150 to date (May 1997), many thoughtful and provocative.

The mission of CTNS is to promote the creative mutual interaction between theology and the natural sciences.

The Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS) strives to bridge these two disciplines. CTNS is a non-profit international membership organization dedicated to research, teaching and public service. It focuses primarily on the relation between contemporary physics, cosmology, technology, environmental studies, evolutionary and molecular biology and Christian theology and ethics.
As an Affiliate of the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, California, CTNS offers courses at the doctoral and seminary level in order to bring future clergy and teachers to greater awareness of this important interdisciplinary work.

TAOwritings for that about which words are inadequate. Thanks, Dr. J. and see:

THE LEFT HEMISPHERE-- A view of SKEPTICISM, RELIGION, AND SECULARISM on the WWW -- "a resource and reading list for rationalists, skeptics, free-thinkers, and humanists, both secular and theistic. "

CHURCH OF VIRUS: The sandbox for "a mimetically engineered atheistic religion" An attempt at synthesizing religion and evolution gone off the deep end with links to vigorous attempts to parody and challenge traditional religious/spiritual beliefs "Darwin's dangerous idea out of control," the passion pendulum swinging wildly. See also Lucifer.Com.a pitched attack on Christianity and Christian values catalyzed by traditional religion's occasionally expressed antipathy to reason -- This is not Satanism, but a boundary condition of the egocentric humanist challenge to authority in which Lucifer is equated with the pursuit of truth through rationality.